Exemplary embodiments of the present invention generally relate to modeling and analyzing proposition-based content to identify one or more areas for improvement and/or clarification. More particularly, exemplary embodiments relate to presenting and reviewing proposition-based content within a distributed computing system using a collaborative environment.
Human persuasion is single-threaded, discordant, and often reliant on factors other than logical consequence. The techniques of rhetoric employed in the pursuit of real-time persuasion rely on human memory to be short-term, finite, singularly focused, distractible and subject to emotional effects. Politicians, lawyers, professors, commentators, salespeople, tyrants, and others rely on their listeners to possess these familiar limitations—for better or for worse, all part of the reality of human persuasion.
Another governing principle in persuasion is that humans are remarkably social. Not only do they try to persuade each other, but they also critique and criticize. Individuals willingly submit their assertion to public review, hoping and expecting that their expressive statements will improve by critique, and thus carry more persuasive weight. In essence, the public forum of debate has a purifying or perfecting effect on the speaker's positions, in a manner akin to peer review in the research literature; no one wins any points until their arguments have been tested, and the more thorough the scrutiny the more likely that the emergent conclusion is true.
The limitations of human mental capacity deserve special mention in discussing the “persuasion problem.” The problem arises when decisions follow faulty conclusions. Not only does finite awareness allow a speaker to say different—even contradictory—things to different audiences, it also allows self-contradiction within a single speech, as long as the contradictory statements are sufficiently far apart. Furthermore, the numerous factual misstatements and logical non-sequiturs that punctuate public rhetoric weaken conclusions and consequent decisions. In addition, the development of a conclusion by which a disputed point becomes “settled” is often quite uneven. Far too often, the speaker with the largest proverbial megaphone will prevail.
The media industry, for example, tends to cater to a specific targeted clientele, effectively ensuring that neither side of a debate hears much of what it doesn't enjoy, and neither side is trained to hone its arguments as counterpoints to the opposition. Instead, each side perfects its untested positions and self-assurances in the fawning attention of friendly listeners. Alas, when polar opinions eventually do clash, neither side can believe or tolerate the rhetoric of the other. This represents a serious loss to the quality of public discourse and is ultimately a grave threat to a free and civil society.